I write to you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked [one]. I write to you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
John divides the family of believers into three groups: fathers, young men, and children. Each group is named by what it already knows or has done — which raises the question of what real growth looks like, and whether some believers hold blessings the rest do not.
English hides a distinction here. Older versions translate two different words in this chapter as "little children," and only one of them marks out a group within the family.
There are two words in this letter, both translated "little children." The one used in 1 John 2:12 and 28 is simply "children." It takes in all believers, since all are children of God. The other, used in 1 John 2:13 and 18, is really "babes," the beginners in the Christian life.
The three names come from ordinary family life: a child grows into a young man, and a young man becomes a father. But one stage of natural life is missing.
The little children are those in whom life is only beginning to develop. The young men are those who have reached, or are reaching, maturity. The fathers are fully mature, ripe in everything Christianity means. Notice there are no "old men" here. There is no hint of feebleness or decay at all. The life is eternal, and this may and does need development, but in it there is no decline.
Each "because" in this verse describes the readers themselves.
Verse 13 states the characteristic features of those to whom he writes, not the themes he writes about, nor the basis on which he writes.
What stands out about the fathers is what John does not credit them with.
They had "known Him that was from the beginning." This, as we have seen, is the great text of the whole letter. It is all the more remarkable that he does not mention any depths or heights of knowledge. Not a word is said about dispensations, or prophecy, or anything thought to be difficult. One thing stood above all the rest and included everything else: Christ Himself. The fathers were those marked by knowing Him. Wherever they may have learned, and however far their energy once reached, they came back to what they started with — even Christ.
Their mark is a battle already behind them.
They had overcome the subtle traps the devil sets through teachings that oppose Christ. They overcame by being built up in the Word of God. In our earlier years as believers, we have not yet had time to be well grounded in the teachings of the Word. So we are far more likely to be led away by subtle teaching that goes against the Word, and to be overcome by the wicked one.
Their weapon is not new. Christ Himself used it when the enemy came to Him.
He brings out the secret of strength for them — the word of God, in the middle of this world, where God acknowledges nothing as His own. The word of God shows God's way in a world where there is none. That is the word by which Christ Himself overcame. The wicked one came and offered Him all the kingdoms of the world, and He answered by the word — He overcame the wicked one.
The youngest in the family are not left waiting for the best blessing.
This is true of the young men and the fathers too, of course. But John says it with emphasis about the babes: they know the Father. Nothing is more foreign to the whole truth of Christianity than the idea that a person should be ignorant of his relationship with the Father. It is the privilege and right of every Christian, even a babe, and nothing can take it away.
A baby shows how such knowledge can be real while still small.
In natural life, a baby knows its father long before it can speak. Years before it can understand the fulness of his love, the baby knows the father himself. This knowledge is the instinct of nature. The father's arms, the father's chest, the father's voice and smile are the baby's joy.
In verse 14 John speaks to the fathers again — and adds nothing new.
Only the verb form is different: in verse 13 he says "I write," and in verse 14 he says "I wrote," referring to what he had already said. And why this? Why has he no more to say to them? Because it was not a matter of things flowing out from God, as men imagined; here all the fulness of the Godhead lived in bodily form... The very idea of something more denied that fulness, and was a lie of Satan.
- One family. All believers are God's children. In this verse, "babes" names the youngest group inside that family, not the whole family.
- Start — the Father. The very first thing true of a new believer is knowing the Father. No one grows into it.
- Middle — the Word. Young men have already won a victory over the wicked one. They won it by the Word of God living in them — the same weapon Christ used.
- End — Christ Himself. Fathers are not marked by rare or difficult knowledge. They are marked by coming back to the One they began with — Christ Himself.
- No old age. The list has fathers but no old men; this life develops, yet it never weakens or declines.
I have written to you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked [one].
In this verse John speaks a second time to the same three groups. The fathers hear the very words they heard before, while the young men hear something added: why they are strong, and what they have already overcome.
Verses 13 and 14 name three groups. One writer sets them side by side and says what marks each.
The forgiveness of sins in verse 12 is a blessing shared by all the children of God. Yet there are measures of growth among them, as verse 13 shows — "fathers," "young men," and "babes." The first are mature in their knowledge of Christ, and of all that has been shown in Him. The second are marked by victory over the adversary by the word of God. The third are marked by the simple knowledge of the Father, which is where we all start at the beginning of our Christian lives.
To the fathers John says nothing new. One writer asks why, and finds the answer in who Christ is.
In verse 13 we read, "I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning" — Christ as He was shown here. John does not go into God's plans from eternity, nor look forward to the future glories of Christ. There is not one word different but in the verbal form: in verse 13 he says I "write," and in verse 14 he says "wrote," referring to what he had already said. Why has he no more to say to them? Because it was now in Him, a Man, that God embodied and showed the fullness of His grace and truth. This had never happened before, and it never needed to happen here again. The very notion of something more denied that fullness, and was a lie of Satan.
Believers often speak of their weakness. The verse says something different, and one writer presses the point.
Now here is a Bible statement. Very often the language of our souls is, "Oh, how weak we are!" Well, in ourselves we are more than weak. But it is a great thing to see the place and the power God gives us. I find here that the young men are strong. I think the secret of their strength is this: "The word of God abides in you." The evidence of their power is this: they know and keep the word of God.
The clause about the word is the one thing added beyond verse 13. Note the verb: it abides.
Observe, first of all, that there is an addition not found in the 13th verse, giving the real secret of their strength. The word of God abides in them. They did not merely turn to the word in an emergency, under pressure of difficulty and trial. His revelation was always abiding in them. This is exactly what we find in the Lord Jesus... When the devil tempted Him, the word was His answer; and if the enemy quoted it for evil, He replied with Scripture for good and truth.
Abiding is more than memory. It describes what the word does once it is inside.
The word cannot abide in me unless I know it. I must read it. I must get to know it. Not only in the mind — it is excellent to store it in the memory by constant reading — but so that the truth the word carries dawns upon the inward eye of my soul. Then the word gets into my affections. I love it. I treasure it. It commands my conscience. It begins to extend its governing power over my life. That is where strength lies. That is the way of victory over the wicked one.
The enemy in view here works by teaching, not by force. Where the ESV says "evil one," the older translation quoted below says "wicked one."
To have "overcome the wicked one" refers especially to overcoming his efforts to lead people away by false teaching. Verse 14 makes this clear. Through the abiding word of God, young men have strength — and it is by this means alone that they have any power to overcome the wicked one.
The command not to love the world comes right after this verse. John aims it at the group he has just called strong.
It is worth noticing who gets the warning against the world in 1 John 2. John gives it to the "young men," not to the "little children" or the "fathers." He gives it, that is, to those in the middle stage of Christian growth and experience. Let us all take home the warning.
- Growth — Forgiveness belongs to every believer alike; growth does not. John names three stages, and every Christian starts as a babe knowing the Father.
- Word — One clause is added for the young men, and it explains the rest: the word of God abides in them.
- Abides — The word is not just grabbed in a crisis. It reaches the affections and the conscience, and then it governs the life.
- Strength — Because the word abides, they are strong. Scripture states this as fact, whatever they feel about their own weakness.
- Overcome — The evil one is beaten where he attacks: in false teaching. Yet the strong are the ones warned next about loving the world.